The Handmaid’s Tale was written during the rise of the opposition to the feminist movement. Atwood was a vigorous supporter of this movement. The battle that existed between both sides of the women’s rights issue inspired her to write this work. It was not clear just what the end result of the feminist movement would be, the author begins at the outset to prod her reader to consider where or how the story will end. Her purpose in writing this serious satire is to warn women now of what the female gender stands to lose if the feminist movement was to fail. The name Gilead symbolizes the eyes of a totalitarian government watching to see that no one breaks the rules. This especially applies to the women of the society.
In Gilead the social relationships between men and women is a thing of the past. In the former society women had a sense value and felt good about themselves and how they looked. However, in the new society that has been made the men have stripped the women of their freedom and equality and lowered them to varying degrees of status. The fertile women are labeled handmaids and are “issued” by the government to various high-ranking officials in order to offer them the opportunity to create offspring because their wives are unable too.
Getting pregnant is their only hope of survival. Females who are not of childbearing age are called Martha’s because their purpose is to work and serve the men the Martha’s are also unable to bear children. A third category of women is labeled less than women, unwomen because of their worthlessness in this male dominated society.
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All three categories are divided into colonies to prevent their rebelling against the system. Also, within each colony communication is limited and higher education is denied. In order to enforce this kind of oppressive social structure, the government uses various forms of intimidation such as physical and mental punishment.
In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood explores the role that women play in society and the consequences of their country’s value system. She reveals that values held in the United States are a huge threat to the livelihood and status of all women. The novel is set in the soon to come future in Gilead, formerly the U.S., at a time when the population rate is rapidly declining. A religious regime has taken over, and women are used as breeders to help boost the declining birth rate in the Caucasian race. Women are owned by men and are breeders. Except for offred’s past best friend Moira.
Unlike Moira, Offred is desperate to conceive the Commanders child in order to survive. Both women parallel many women in today’s society. On one hand, there are feminists who rebel against society no matter what it costs but they live in the colonies and fight for their lives. On the other hand, there are women who are just trying to survive and find their place in a society in which they are labeled second class citizens.
In the novel, Offred is torn between stealing and smearing her face with butter to keep her complexion and hanging herself. In the same manner, she is caught between accepting the status of women under the new regime and following her own desires to gain knowledge and fall in love even if it is not with her husband. Offred doesn’t know whether to accept the circumstances and die inside, or to fulfill her own desires, set herself free like Moira has done.
The contrast between Moira and Offred reveals Atwood’s attitude towards women and their sometimes self-destructive submission. Atwood shows the oppression of women through the extreme setting of the story, but she also allows the reader to see how women passively oppress themselves.
The Handmaids Tale, by Margaret Atwood, can be classified as a dystopian novel. The Republic of Gilead in The Handmaids Tale is characteristic of a dystopia in that it is not intended as a prediction of the future of our society, but rather as a commentary on current social trends. Atwood has created this nation by isolating what she might consider the disturbing aspects of two diametrically opposed factions of our society as a theory as to what would happen if these ideals were taken to an extreme.
She points out similarities in the thoughts and actions of the extreme religious right and certain parts of the feminist movement. This can be seen as an attempt to point out the neo-Victorian aspects of most anti-pornography ideologies.
In past, especially during the time with Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman, the idea of protecting women from the varies dangers of society and exploitation has been used as an excuse to keep women from working outside of the home, voting, or participating in many other social and political activities. Even today many Islamic women will state that their veils and extremely modest dress are a form of protection from sexual exploitation from anyone except from their husbands.
Atwood could be trying to show us that although pornography is degrading to women, this is an issue that is far outweighed by the greater issue of freedom of speech or expression, which goes against the many opinions from both the religious right and some extreme feminists.
Another issue in which feminist and religious movements can be seen to converge in this novel is in the process of childbirth. To understand why this is significant a short history of childbirth is necessary. In early times all births were natural due to the fact that there were not any alternatives.
While The Handmaid’s Tale conveys the oppression of women, it also reveals the significant roles women play in every society Attwood gets the point across saying that they can be oppressed by men, but women can equally suppress themselves through offred’s eyes, comparisons between today’s society and the possible consequences of one’s attitudes are closely examined the hand maids tale slowly uncovers many facts of women and their vital role of members of society.
The Handmaid’s Tale has many elements of social big decline written into its plot. From the way women are mistreated to the corruption and evil have infiltrated the government and army, to the way the black market plays a key role in many people’s lives causing a majority of society to become criminals makes it clear how social decline plays a key role in the book. There is also a strong sense of moral decline in the book.
If a person, regardless of sex, doesn’t fit into the role expectation, he or she is eliminated, exiled from Gilead, and left for dead. Dystopia, the final determinant in the success of The Handmaid’s Tale is an imaginary world gone sour through idealism that fails to correspond to the expectations, principles, and behaviors of real people.
